Daynote - Fri 12 Sep

It's Bloody Scotland weekend! Hooray! We're up and packing the car to head off to Stirling for the Bloody Scotland festival. I'm appearing on two panels this weekend - the Debut Panel at 3.30pm today (sold out) and the Spies West, Eyes East panel tomorrow at 1pm, with Kim Sherwood, DB John and chaired by Vaseem Khan. That's still got one or two tickets left I think.

ON DECK: No writing today, but I have written a long newsletter about what it's like to have been published for a full year (since today also marks exactly one year since A RELUCTANT SPY was released. That's coming out at 10am.

For now, the main priority is getting on the road to Stirling, checking in and saying hello to everyone, then making sure I get to my panel on time. Tonight is also the Bloody Scotland Prize Ceremony, where we'll finally find out who has won the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize. Wish me luck!

LISTENING: I really enjoyed this SFFAddicts interview with Dave Wragg on surviving the midlist. Dave and I are in the same Discord server and he's very right about the mutual support being absolutely crucial for celebrating the highs and surviving the lows of the business.

WATCHING: A bit more KING & CONQUEROR last night. Honestly so much strife in history caused by important people dying without writing anything down about their wishes.

READING: More of NO ONE TO HOLD THE DISTANT DEAD yesterday. Still marvellous. For once I'm being honest with myself and not taking any books (digital or otherwise) to a book festival with me, because I'm driving (so I can't read on the way there or back) and it's going to be a very busy weekend, so I won't read while I'm there. I will almost certainly acquire books though.

KIT: In packing last night I was reminded how much I love my travel pack. I've used loads of different backpacks over the years, but when I started travelling once or twice a month between day job and publishing stuff I did a load of research to find something I could use for weekends away or longer trips that would be really hardwearing and comfortable. I ended up on the Peak Design Travel Backpack and after using it for a couple of years I can definitely say it's been worth every penny (it's very expensive, but I also will likely be using it for a decade plus).

LINK: I appeared (sort of) on Lomond Radio last night! Ruth Matheson does a show called TENuous Links 10-12pm which features a segment called 'Ruth's Reads'. She very kindly reviewed the book, then played some music that I had selected. It's a very fun idea for a radio show. You can listen to it on the station's Listen Again player here.

UP NEXT: Here we go, Bloody Scotland weekend! Updates will be sparse, but check out my Bluesky and Instagram if you want to follow along over the weekend. And check back at 10am for a 'year in review' post about the anniversary of A RELUCTANT SPY's release.

But first, I need another cup of tea and some breakfast.

Onward!